Paper on Virtual Archaeology Published in “Anthropology News”

“Public Archaeology in Virtual Worlds,” an article by Anthropology and History faculty members and students, was included in a special section on anthropological education in the September issue of Anthropology News.

Anthropology Department faculty members Beverly Chiarulli, Sarah Neusius, and Ben Ford, Scott Moore (History Department), and Marion Smeltzer, graduate student in the M.A. in Applied Archaeology program, wrote the article. Anthropology News is a monthly publication of the American Anthropological Association.

“Public Archaeology in Virtual Worlds” describes an initiative at by IUP’s Anthropology and History departments to establish a presence in Linden Lab’s virtual environment Second Life. Archaeology Island contains recreations of archaeological sites in Belize, Cyprus, and Pennsylvania and an underwater site recreating a shipwreck in Lake Ontario, all based on archaeological data. Through a program of guided tours, discussion sessions, and interactive technologies, the site has become a venue for archaeological education for IUP students as well as the broader virtual community.

The development of Archaeology Island has been funded through an IUP Provosts' Academic Excellence and Innovation Award (2007). The IUP Department of Communication Media, and especially Allen Partridge and his students in the Applied Media and Simulation Games Center, provided technical assistance during the first year of the project.